Wolfblood's Game
by Lolsome-o-sis girl
Summary: So, yeah. This is the strange fic that came out of me watching the Ender's Game film - which, by the way, I loved - then Wolfblood, whilst eating pizza. Basically an AU story about what might happen if some of the Ender-verse characters were Wolfbloods...So, I hope you can roll with this. Disclaimer, I own nothing whatsoever.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N: So, yeah. Something a little different and weird. I put this in the movie category, because I have never read the books. The only information I have comes from the film, or the list of characters that Wikipedia has, which I found when I was looking for spellings and stuff. Leave me any comments you have, please.**

* * *

"We're going the wrong way!"

"Are not!"

"Yes, we are! You're holding the map upside down!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"For Christ's sake, shut up, the pair of yer!" The map disappeared from my hands, as Mr Bates slammed on the gas pedal and snatched it over the seat, sending me and Ender hurtling forward.

"Hey!" My brother yelped, earning him a deathly glare in the rear view mirror.

"Are we nearly there yet?" I asked, as our councillor studied the map.

"Mind your own bleedin' business!" He snapped in reply, causing Ender to growl, fists clenching. I noticed the dark veins crawling up his hands; I reached over and kicked him in the shins.

We turned down a small country lane, just off the highway, bumping over potholes, with Mr Bates _'flippin''_ this and _'bleeedin''_ that in his thick cockney accent. As the lane began to climb upwards, the cussing became louder and more explicit; I felt the urge to cover Ender's ears. Ninth Graders should not know that kind of language.

After a few minutes, the car slowed down. I twisted round in my seat to glance out of the dirty, smudged window. A small church rose up in the centre of the marshes, gravestones sticking up of the ground like crooked, uneven teeth. Silvery ribbons of water wound themselves around the reed beds, merging with the off-colour line that separated the sky from the land.

"What's that?" I asked.

"What's what?" Came Mr Bates' snotty reply.

"That, over there."

"It's the flippin' river, innit!" Mr Bates snapped, surprising me. "Dumb cow..." The last part was muttered, Mr Bates not realising that both me and Ender could hear him perfectly clear. Ender's hand was twitching above his seatbelt, ready to hurl himself at Mr Bates, his eyes blazing, teeth bared. I knew that he didn't like our councillor, and that our councillor didn't like us either. Then again, a lot of people didn't like us. We sensed things others could not; it made them nervous, edgy to be around us.

"Calm down!" I hissed to Ender, making sure Mr Bates couldn't hear us. Ender couldn't change yet, but it was only a matter of time before he would be able to. He had always had a short temper, even though he was quite shy around others. We were both secretly fretting about what would happen when he had to control the Wolf on top of his short temper, which would become even shorter.

We bumped down the slope, until Mr Bates cut off the engine again.

"The house is just up there, through those woods," he said, pointing with his podgy finger down the muddy track that led towards the trees. "But, if you think I'm drivin' all the way down there, you can bleedin' well think again, 'cause it ain't Christmas today!"

Mr Bates practically hauled us out of his car by the scruffs of our necks, dropping us and our duffle bags down onto the track.

"Hey! This is child abandonment!" Ender yelled, as Mr Bates threw the car into reverse and sped away. "I'll sue you for this!"

"Leave it." I reached out and caught his arm. "He's not worth it. C'mon, let's go find this house, then." Ender did as he was told, but he was still muttering under his breath, too low for even me to hear.

We started along the beaten path, me jogging on ahead, Ender bringing up the rear.

"Where are we even going?" He called after a while, speeding up to patch my pace, as I pushed through the trees.

"Don't ask me," I replied, with a shrug of my shoulders. "We'll have to ask someone for directions."

Ender rolled his eyes. "Right. From who, genius?"

"Well, there's got to be someone else here besides us." I sniffed the air, tasting every fragrance of the light breeze. Moss, leaves, grass, mud...and, faintly, human.

"This way." Both of us broke out into a run, racing through the thicket of the woods. My sneakers squelched through the mud and dirt, the substances snaking up the back of my jeans.

Ender skidded to a stop suddenly, as we reached the edge of the trees, coming to a large archway, built out of crumbling red brick. Two pillars stood either side, stone gargoyles staring beadily down at us, unimpressed.

"Jeez," Ender said, eyebrow raised. "Don't do things modestly, do they?"

"Guess Mrs Peterson-Smith doesn't need to be modest," I replied, as the smell of human danced across the breeze again, closer this time. "Hey. Someone's coming." My head snapped round to the direction of the scent, ears pricked, listening. Ender mimicked my posture exactly, as the gentle sound of padding footsteps filled our ears.

"Relax, Ender," I said quietly.

"Why don't you?"

"Touché." My eyes flickered back to the trees, just as the figure appeared in our line of sight. A boy that looked about Ender's age stumbled into view, twigs embedded in his hair.

"Hello," he said, after we'd all regarded each other warily.

"Hello," Ender and I replied simultaneously.

"Hasn't anybody told you it's rude to stare?" Ender said; I elbowed him.

"What are you doing here? No one ever comes up to Millhall?"

"Then, what are you doing here?" Ender raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I'll rephrase. Nobody, except me, comes up to Millhall. What about you?"

"We're staying with Mrs Peterson-Smith," I replied.

"Why?" The boy's nose wrinkled up.

"None of your business," Ender muttered, but the boy ignored the comment.

"She's our new foster mom," I told him. "Is she nice?"

"Haven't you met her before?" Surprise flickered across his face.

"We've never met her," Ender confirmed; I nodded along with him.

"I thought you had to have all meetings and stuff." The boy gave a shrug, before offering his hand for me to shake. "I'm Julian, but you can call me Bean."

"I'm Valentine. This is my brother, Andrew. Everyone calls him Ender, though."

Bean smirked. "What kind of name is Ender?"

"What kind of name is Bean?" My brother retorted.

"Fair enough. I've got a brother called Nikolai, so, I guess I'm not one to judge, right?"

"Who names a kid Nikolai?" Ender raised an eyebrow.

Bean rolled his eyes. "Don't ask me. Ask Mom." He paused, seemingly cautious. "What happened to your Mom, then? You know, for you to be taken into care and stuff?"

I shrugged. "We don't know. We were found by the side of the road, so..."

"Oh." Bean shuffled. "Sorry. None of my business, I know."

"It's fine." I turned back to the archway. "Hey, is Millhall where Mrs Peterson-Smith lives?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Could you show us the way?"

Bean shuffled his weight. "I'm not supposed to go near there. Mom says that Mrs Peterson-Smith is a nutcase who needs to be locked up..."

"Oh, GREAT," Ender muttered to himself.

I looked at Bean. "Please? You're already here, aren't you? And, if you get in trouble, I'll tell your Mom it was my fault."

"Fine. This way." Bean led us through the archway, and along the grassy track. "This is the shortest way. If you go the long way, it cuts by the church. Mom says I'm not supposed to go there either."

"Why not?"

"It's technically owned by Mrs Peterson-Smith...and, well, as I said, she's off limits in our house."

"She has her own church?" My brother grinned. "Awesome..."

I rolled my eyes. "You're gonna beg me to take you down there, aren't you?"

Bean glanced back at us over his shoulder. "So, where you two going to school?"

"Uh..." I cast my mind back to the name Mr Bates had given us a week before. "Melthorpe, I think."

"Same!" Bean seemed pleased. "What grade?"

"Ninth," Ender said bitterly.

"Same here. What 'bout you, Val?"

"Tenth," I chimed in. "Do you know any of the sophomores?"

"Not personally, no," Bean replied. "And, Nikolai's only in eighth grade, so I've only got Dink."

"Who?" Ender wrinkled up his nose.

"Dink Meeker. He's a good mate. You two would like him." We'd reached the end of the trees. Bean gawped. "Whoa! So, that's Millhall..."

Millhall house was surrounded by acres of fields, and stood two levels high, made out of faded gray and red bricks, with a flat roof, the tiles tinged green with moss. Three sets of chimneys balance precariously on top of the roof, wafts of gray smoke billowing from one of them. Ender was wrinkling up his nose at it, but I thought it was perfect. It looked as if it was straight out of a fairy tale.

"Thanks, Bean." I glanced at the still-gawping boy. He seemed to snap out of his trance.

"Oh, yeah...yeah...You're welcome, Val." He blinked at me. "See you tomorrow, yeah? For school?"

"Oh, yes, of course." I waved, and then tugged Ender's sleeve. "C'mon, Cub."

"M'not a cub!" Ender protested, as we walked towards the front door.

"Until your first full moon, you are," I teased. He huffed under his breath, as we came to the front door. I paused, uncertain for a moment.

"Are you going to knock, or howl?" Ender asked.

"Ha ha, Andrew. Very funny." I banged on the door. It swung open after a moment. "Hello? Mrs Peterson-Smith?"

"Isn't this how horror movies start? You know, the two kids go into the house and then never come out?"

"You're not helping!" I stepped inside. "You coming?"

"Have I got a choice?"

"Hmm..." I pretended to be in deep thought. "No."

"Great." His voice was laced with sarcasm, as he crossed the threshold also. As soon as he did that, the door slammed behind us. We both jumped.

"You were right," I said after a moment. "This is EXACTLY like a horror movie."

"Told you so." Ender folded his arms. "Where's Mrs Peterson-Smith?"

"She probably doesn't know that we're here yet. C'mon. Let's go find her."

We didn't have to look far. I only had to go into the first room to find her. Mrs Peterson-Smith was curled up on a scarlet loveseat, one which matched the colour scheme of the whole room. It almost made me cringe. She looked up sharply, a strand of gray hair falling in front of her brilliant green eyes.

"Hello, Mrs Peterson-Smith," I began. "I'm Valentine."

"Oh." Was all she said.

I gestured behind me. "This is Ender."

She frowned. "I thought it was Andrew."

"Yeah, well, everyone calls him Ender," I replied.

"Oh," she repeated, not really knowing what to say to us. "Well, if you want to go and get settled, dinner will be in an hour..."

"Okay. Sure. C'mon, Ender." I dragged him from the room, and shut the door behind us.

"Not exactly a barrel of laughs, is she?" Ender said, as soon as the door was shut,

"Ender!" I scolded.

"What? It's true!"

"That doesn't mean you say it!"

"You sound like Mom," he snorted.

"If I don't, who else will?" I muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

The first night at Millhall was awful.

At six-thirty on the dot, our new foster mom called us down for dinner. I had tried to clean myself up, but I only had a few sets of clean clothes, and it seemed so pointless to change when I was planning a well needed shower. So, instead, I scrubbed hard at my clothes with my flannel, trying to get the mud out. However, I only seemed to make things worse, and ended up looking like I'd been dragged through a ditch just before our arrival. Ender, on the other hand, made no effort to change his clothes. He clumped down the spiralling staircase in his muddy converses, grinning obliviously. Sometimes, I think he lived in his own little world...

It became even worse when we saw the dining room. Mrs Peterson-Smith ate dinner in a pristine white dining room, with folded napkins and about twenty spoons with each course. Candles sat in front of every place, where a plate of turkey and parsnips rested, waiting to be eaten. I started panicking then; Ender was the fussiest eater I had ever known, and despised turkey, despite being a wolf. I couldn't say I blamed him, but I ate every mouthful of the dry, tasteless meal, just to seem polite. Ender managed a mouthful of the turkey, but after that he pushed the food around his plate, staring gormlessly at the small pot of roses that Mrs Peterson-Smith had placed on the table, intending to make it look appealing. It really didn't; in fact, it made me feel scruffy, like a street urchin in a Victorian novel. I made a quick note of checking if I'd left a mark on the white seats.

After our awkward dinner with Mrs Peterson-Smith, who had absolutely no idea how to speak to - or feed - teenagers, we were dismissed from her company and sent back upstairs to our rooms.

"What are we, five?" Ender had huffed indignantly, as he sat gingerly on the end of his assigned bed, as if it was infested with bed bugs. I didn't see what he was complaining about. In our previous home in New York, the two of us had to share a mattress, as the beds that the family gave us broke as soon as we sat on them, and they wouldn't pay for new ones. I would have traded that burnt, broken mattress for a lice riddled bed any day. We actually did have lice at one point. In another home, the neighbour's cat got fleas, and gave them all to me on the night of the full moon, which meant that I brought it indoors with me. It surely bought a swift end to our time with that particular family.

In Millhall, we had proper rooms, not at all like the dingy closet we shared back in the cramped city of New York. Still, that didn't stop there being bad points. In New York, it was so loud that we couldn't hear the rain the few times that it fell during the night. At Millhall, however, there was nothing to muffle the sound. I lay awake, tossing and turning, listening to Ender's soft breathing from the next room, as I wriggled in the itchy sheets of the bed. I heard Mrs Peterson-Smith going to bed late that night, listened to the house settling into an eerie silence. That was the problem - it was too quiet.

Well, quiet, if you forgot about the hammering rain that was tumbling from the inky sky.

It took me a long time to fall asleep, cocooned up in the scratchy blankets, and even then I was awake before my alarm sounded at seven-thirty. Thick fog clung to the air outside, as I opened the curtains and stared at the paper white sky. At least it wasn't raining.

I dashed into the shower before anyone else was awake, trying to relax under the warm water, but even that wouldn't calm me down. My mood would probably improve after I burnt off my excess energy; I was bouncing up and down from one foot to the other as I picked out my clean clothes.

Mrs Peterson-Smith decided to join me for breakfast this morning, as I sat at the table and shyly munched on the rock hard toast that I had tried to prepare myself. It was like eating charcoal, but I felt rude wasting her bread, and, just like the dinner, I forced myself to swallow every mouthful, even though I don't think she would have noticed if I didn't eat. She drooped over a cup of black coffee in a woollen robe, making odd grunts and mumbles whenever I tried to initiate conversation.

By the time Ender surfaced and showered, I was halfway through my fourth slice of toast. He raised his eyebrow at the plate in front of me, before shaking his head when I desperately offered him a piece.

"You're welcome to it, Val," he said, grinning at my facial expression.

"Meany," I muttered, not being able to face the rest of the food. I stood up, pushing my plate away. "Hadn't we better get going?"

"For what?" Ender looked confused.

I rolled my eyes. "School. Duh!"

He let out a groan. "Seriously?"

"Come on, bro." I steered him towards the door, grabbing our bags on the way out. "See you later, Mrs Peterson-Smith."

"Bye, Valentine, Andrew."

"It's Ender!" Ender yelled, as I shoved him out of the door, calling a last goodbye. I whacked him on the shoulder when I was sure that we were out of hearing range.

"What the hell was that for?!" He protested. "I mean, come on, how many times do I have to tell her that my name is Ender, not Andrew? Jeez!"

"You could have been a bit nicer about it!" I hurled his bag at him; he caught it immediately with his left hand.

"Someone's grumpy this morning," he teased.

"Shut up, Ender."

"I know what will make you feel better."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"Race ya!" He took off into the woods.

"Oi! That's cheating!" I sprinted after him, letting my muscles move freely at wolf speed. Even before your first full moon, wolves still had their speed and heightened senses. Ender was lucky - I had already lived through the first transformation, and knew what was coming. Unfortunatly, I hadn't had anyone there when I had changed for the first time. It was the most terrifying night of my life, to say the least.

"Hey! Val!" Ender was swinging from a tree branch. "Getting out of shape, are you?"

"Very funny." I gave his leg a tug, and he toppled to the ground.

"Ow! What was that for?"

I sent him a pointed look. "Andrew Wiggin -" He shuddered at his full name " - you know what happens if we screw up at Millhall. We'll get put into a home again. Split up. Do you want that?"

"No. But, still, the state must really hate us to send us all the way out here."

"What's wrong with the place?" I asked, fighting off a yawn.

"Uh, have you got an hour? I have a long list."

"I'm sure you do, Ender." I rolled my eyes again. "Come on, I'll race you to the highway." We took off again, gliding through the trees, invisible to human eyes. That was the thing I loved about being a wolf. We were beyond the understanding of the small minded people who would try to get us down.

Ender beat me to the highway, due to my speculating.

"Damn, cub, we've finally arrived at the day when you could outrun me," I teased. Ender tried to shove me.

"Vaaaaaal!" My nickname was dragged out. "Quit calling me cub! It's so...embarrassing!"

"Why do you think I do it, idiot?" I tried to ruffle his hair; he swerved out of the way before I could catch him.

"Hey! Val, Ender!" A familiar shout made our heads snap round at the same second. Bean was running up the road towards us, waving his arms around wildly.

"Hello again," I greeted, as he reached us.

"Hey!" He managed to gasp out between pants. "Thought I'd see you two here, and, since I'm so nice, I decided to walk with you."

"Wow." Ender's voice was unimpressed. "No need to be so "generous"."

Bean smirked. "You're a weird one, Wiggin."

"Touché', my good man."

"I see you two are going to get on." I sent Bean a grin. "Got any spare friends for me?"

"Hmm...I'll see who I've got lying around. Besides, won't you be spending all your time with the sophomores?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Somehow, I highly doubt that."

"Valentine doesn't like people," Ender smirked.

"Brave words from the cub, Andrew," I shot back.

"Cub? What kind of nickname is that?"

"It's Val, trying to be funny," Ender replied, sending me a dark look. My answering smile was sweetly innocent.

* * *

"Oh, god." I felt dizzy.

"Stop worrying, Val!" Ender clapped me on the back. "This is gonna be a breeze!"

"For you, maybe!" I protested. "Oh, god, I feel sick..."

"Hey, if you don't calm down, Val, there'll be a lot of...howling around here." Ender squeezed my hand; I saw the curve of dark veins covering them, and burrowed them in the pockets of my jacket.

"Hey! Beanie!" A shout from a few metres away made me look up. Another boy was hurrying towards us.

"Dink!" Bean hi-fived him, as Ender and I pulled questioning faces at each other; "Dink" seemed to notice.

"Picked up some strays on the way to school today, Bean?"

Bean rolled his eyes again. "That's Val, and this is Ender. They just moved into Millhall with Mrs Peterson-Smith."

"You poor bastards!" Dink pulled me into a one armed hug, whilst Ender watched my face over the boy's shoulder, amused. "I'm Dink Meeker. Good thing we're on hand to help you! We'd better get you two inside...You need some normality!"

Normality? Us? Yeah, right.

I was about to follow Dink and Bean, when Ender caught my shoulder.

"What?"

"Can't you smell that?" He was sniffing the air. I did the same, scanning the crowds of milling students.

"What?"

"I don't know..." Ender frowned. "It's weird...Not human, but, not like us, either."

"Weird," I agreed.

"You two coming?" Bean yelled to us.

"Just a second!" I replied, before turning back to Ender. "Come on. We'll worry about it later."

"But, Val -"

"Ender, we just need to get through this day without any problems. Let's just focus on that, yeah? I don't want us to be separated, especially with the moon being so close."

There was a pause.

"Yeah," Ender said finally. "School. Focus. Moon. Yeah."

"Good."


End file.
